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Chimney Rock Park Lures Hikers
by Yonatan Arnold
Click photo to enter gallery
From the top you can see Lake Lure
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It is nine o'clock in the morning, and slowly students start to show up for the hike of the week, brought to us by the Mars Hill College Outdoor Center. We are headed for Chimney Rock, North Carolina's newest state park, located in Rutherford County near Lake Lure.
Chimney Rock has been privately owned for more than 100 years, and the state just recently bought the land -- 996 acres for $24 million. The park will continue under private management through 2009.
It is a little cold and cloudy on this early morning in late February, and people are wearing warm sweaters with layers so when they warm up on the hike, they can take off the layers.
We hop into our three vehicles for the one-hour drive to the trailhead.
The Four Seasons trail is the one that we hike on. As we begin, we can see the mountains in the distance and early-morning fog still hugging the land.
It isn't long before it turns into a blue clear crisp day. A small breeze carries the sounds and smells of nature. Leaves shuffle as we walk over them. We can hear a stream of water going down the side of the mountain to the left.
Our group of 13 continues on the up-and-down and winding trail until it meets another path. We then go to the right. As we continue, we notice to the right the small town where the roads cross the mountains. In the far distance, we see a small house tucked in the mountainside
Human-made steps of lumber are now our guide. Water trickles down the mountain on the left. As we move higher we encounter the first of many sets of steep wooden stairs with banisters that were built by the private owners of the area.
We then hear more water - water from high behind the trees. We look up and see the water descending from the top. Hickory Nut Falls, 404 feet high, is magnificent and beautiful. It is one of the highest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River. The group takes many pictures in front of it, beside it, and from far away.
After the moments with the water fall, we back-track and start heading to the top of Chimney Rock.
Chimney Rock is a 315-foot high granite outcropping, and as we walk we can see it above us behind the trees. We follow another series of steep wooden steps that go higher and higher, closer to the sky. We turn left and turn right. We pass other groups, go between rocks, walk by a dark and spooky cave. The sky is painted blue with a few clouds in the middle. The light wooden steps disappear for a bit then come back to guide us upward.
We must cross a wooden bridge to get to the top of Chimney Rock, where the American flag flies freely in the air. In the distance below us we can see Lake Lure and the small town that is near it. We see the blue sky, the lake and the landscape as we look over the balcony of nature.
We stop to eat and rest our heavy legs after ascending the steep grade of the mountain. To our surprise, there is a store not far from the outlook, but most of us have brought our own lunches.
After lunch, we continue our hike on the trail to the top of Hickory Nut Falls. On the way we stop to see the Devils Head --a menacing boulder resting on a ledge. We walk over roots that make the path. We see the view from beautiful overlook points. The sun peers over the trees and the shade chills us. We see rock formations that make arches.
At the top, the leaves on the side of the trail, the leaves in the water, and the sun peering into the water make a powerful picture of nature in its best form.
We have reached the top and now must start the journey back to the bottom. At a pretty good steady speed, we follow the path down, past the Devils Head, past Chimney Rock. When we finally reach the bottom, we are tired, sleepy, and most of us have had fun. Now we hit the road back home to Mars Hill.
Click Here for Gallery by Josh Doby and Yonatan Arnold
Click here for Chimney Rock Website
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